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Fast Secure File Transfers Power Animation Studio

Key Points

  • The studio has operated for over 20 years, producing hundreds of hours of episodic TV, direct‑to‑DVD movies, and feature films while juggling multiple concurrent projects on a tight schedule.
  • To meet demanding client deadlines, they needed a secure, high‑speed solution for transferring large media files (often > 500 MB) that also provided an audit trail of uploads and downloads.
  • Implementing Aspera’s file‑transfer platform gave them fast, reliable transfers, granular tracking, and the ability to verify receipt, eliminating the need for manual “babysitting” of transfers.
  • By integrating Aspera’s API into their production pipeline, artists can automatically publish assets to remote partners, enabling a seamless 24‑hour global workflow with minimal support overhead.

Full Transcript

# Fast Secure File Transfers Power Animation Studio **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEp-9whRGo4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEp-9whRGo4) **Duration:** 00:03:51 ## Summary - The studio has operated for over 20 years, producing hundreds of hours of episodic TV, direct‑to‑DVD movies, and feature films while juggling multiple concurrent projects on a tight schedule. - To meet demanding client deadlines, they needed a secure, high‑speed solution for transferring large media files (often > 500 MB) that also provided an audit trail of uploads and downloads. - Implementing Aspera’s file‑transfer platform gave them fast, reliable transfers, granular tracking, and the ability to verify receipt, eliminating the need for manual “babysitting” of transfers. - By integrating Aspera’s API into their production pipeline, artists can automatically publish assets to remote partners, enabling a seamless 24‑hour global workflow with minimal support overhead. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEp-9whRGo4&t=0s) **Long‑Running CG Studio’s Workflow Challenges** - The veteran animation studio outlines its tight, multi‑project schedule, flawless deadline record, and shift from cumbersome FTP transfers to a secure solution for handling massive, sensitive media files. ## Full Transcript
0:00[Music] 0:13we've been in existence for over 20 0:16years we're one of the longest-running 0:19studios around the world and we started 0:22in the early 1990s creating and 0:25producing the very first episodic full 0:27CG cartoon called reboot since then 0:32we've done hundreds of hours of episodic 0:34TV direct-to-dvd movies and full feature 0:38movies generally have maybe three to 0:42five different projects going on even 0:45time so a couple may be direct videos 0:48and one or two feature projects so we're 0:51always busy there's always different 0:53projects rotating in and out we have you 0:56know the schedule that we have and it's 0:57usually quite tight and we try to see 0:59within it know if we spend something up 1:01for feedback and we don't hear within 24 1:03hours it could it could really delay 1:05being able to achieve the work in the 1:07time that we have in 20 years we have 1:09not missed a deadline so we want to keep 1:12it that way 1:12the clients do demand the things very 1:15quickly sometimes unrealistically but we 1:18do our best to meet those demands when I 1:21got here nine years ago primarily we 1:24used either FTP to move the digital 1:27files over the Internet prior to 1:29implementing espera sending anything 1:31over say 500 megabytes would be a real 1:36challenge you know when we were dealing 1:37with really large amounts of data we 1:39would put on a portable hard drive and 1:41send it we're dealing also with security 1:45issues you know we've got media that is 1:46in demand and stuff that people want and 1:48so we need to make sure that it's secure 1:50I needed something that was secure I 1:53needed something that could speed up our 1:56transfers and I wanted something that I 1:59could tell when somebody sent it I could 2:02tell when somebody received it I had an 2:04audit trail having the ability to see 2:06who's downloaded the files and when 2:09that's actually saved my but a couple 2:11times somebody says they didn't get 2:12something I can right away see users can 2:16you know cut on demand send content or 2:19receive content and so that really 2:20facilitates collaboration 2:23enables us to send files back and forth 2:25even even internally not just with our 2:27clients we do send things later in the 2:30day usually of doing that it's gone and 2:31I don't have to like babysit it and make 2:33sure it's gone that's that's huge for us 2:35because we have other things to do with 2:37my dance the other way that we use it is 2:39we've taken advantage of the espera API 2:41to integrate our server into our 2:43pipeline so when we're working with an 2:45external partner on a particular project 2:47our artist can publish an asset and have 2:49that asset literally automatically sent 2:52to the remote site for review so we 2:55finish our day here files get sent 2:57around the globe they start their work 2:59and then at the end of their day they 3:01send files back and we're thus a 24-hour 3:04shop the end user has really no issue 3:07with it they login it's really just kind 3:09of like using email and sending an 3:11attachment so it has a really low 3:12support overhead as far as our team is 3:15concerned I think higher speeds and 3:18consistent speeds of us to send files 3:20back and forth the clients get notes 3:23faster therefore increasing productivity 3:27quite a bit you know now we've got a 3:28solution that allows us to really 3:31control the data gives us visibility as 3:33far as who's accessing that data and it 3:36improves the reliability and speed of 3:38our transfers we are very happy with 3:40espera 3:41it has simplified our processes it has 3:45automated some processes and it has 3:49never failed us